“There can be little doubt: the ‘Union’ is falling apart.”
Joe Dwyer reports from an event with Pat Cullen MP, Seamus Logan MP, Baroness Smith of Llanfaes and Kevin Meagher on the unravelling of the Union.
As the celebrated constitutional-insurrectionist – Tony Benn – once observed, “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to give its full title, is neither united nor great…”
It is an observation that has only become increasingly more evident with each passing year.
Indeed, it is becoming entirely possible that the upcoming May elections could result in a Scottish nationalist First Minister in Holyrood, a Welsh nationalist First Minister in the Senedd – alongside an Irish nationalist First Minister in the North of Ireland.
This would constitute a political terrain that the original framers of the present constitutional scaffolding never intended. Let us remember that the ‘devolution project’ was calculated to stymie the cry for independence, once and for all.
Indeed, in 1995, the British Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, George Robertson, stated that a devolved Scottish Parliament would kill the idea of an independent Scotland “stone dead.”
Reflecting this potential constitutional milestone, on Wednesday 11 February, in the heart of the supposed ‘Mother of all Parliaments’, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish nationalists met to discuss the unravelling of the ‘Union’.
The gathering was a Westminster panel discussion organised by IrishBorderPoll.com. The line-up of speakers included: Sinn Féin’s Pat Cullen MP, the SNP’s Seamus Logan MP, Plaid Cymru’s Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, and the independent author and commentator Kevin Meagher. The evening was chaired by Kevin Rooney, editor of IrishBorderPoll.com.
The former Chief Executive and General Secretary of the RCN, now Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Pat Cullen, opened the evening’s discussion. Speaking from an Irish perspective, Ms Cullen reflected on the negative impact of British Government interference. She said, “In the north, we have literally seen a litany of English Ministers who have been flown into our part of the world – very often for the first time in their lives! – completely detached from the interests of our people, and completely clueless about our politics.”
She recalled how the late Martin McGuinness used to often re-tell the story of the first time he sat down privately with Ian Paisley, and how the DUP leader had said to him, “We don’t need Englishmen to rule us. We can do that for ourselves.”
As Pat Cullen observed, “Imagine that coming from Ian Paisley! But on that basis, they found common ground. We can manage our own affairs.” She concluded by saying, “The pro-Irish unity argument is gathering momentum like never before. Sinn Féin is now the largest party in the North at local government, Assembly, and Westminster levels. And according to every piece of information, the pro-union plurality in the north could be reversed as soon as 2027. So, the unity conversation is live, and it’s happening in real time.”
Turning the conversation to Wales, Plaid Cymru’s Baroness Carmen Smith told the meeting, “They often say for Wales: ‘see England’ – as if our needs, our geography, our economy and our people are interchangeable. History is repeating itself with the Crown Estate, wealth generated in Wales, extracted from Wales, going to the Crown instead of being reinvested in our communities.” Noting how successive British Governments have classified rail infrastructure projects that run through England alone as ‘England and Wales’ projects.
She added, “What is clear is that more and more people are realising the status quo is unsustainable, particularly our young people. Our task now is to build the confidence in the people of Wales that independence is the future. That future won’t be written here in Westminster, it will be written by the people of Wales – for the people of Wales.”
Baroness Carmen was followed by Seamus Logan, the MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, who gave a brief overview of the constitutional conversation taking shape in Scotland. As Mr Logan remarked, “This is not a union of equality, of respect, of parity of esteem – the basic ingredients for a successful democracy. This is a union where advantage, prioritisation, and key decision-making powers have been placed in the hands of one partner at the expense of others. We are locked into a ‘Union’ which is convenient for one and oppressive for the others.”
The SNP representative identified Britain’s decision to leave the European Union as “the rock upon which ‘the Union’ perished,” and condemned the “self-serving, insidious culture” that dominates Westminster politics. He concluded his remarks by noting that, “For 20 years, we have elected a government whose policy is independence, and yet we are denied. This will not continue. We will not be denied.”
The final speaker was Kevin Meagher, author of ‘A United Ireland: Why Unification Is Inevitable and How It Will Come About’, who provided an assessment of the present political situation. As he noted, “all the energy in British politics, I think, is now at the periphery. It may be a case of the charisma or the snake oil – depending on your point of view of Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski of the Greens – or for the yearning of nationhood represented by my fellow panellists here tonight.” Either way, “the Red/Blue politics that’s dominated this country for the last 100 years has never looked more parlous. The electricity of British politics now takes place at the edges of the circuit board, not in the centre of it.”
As he concluded, “the threads that bind each of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom to ‘the Union’ are fraying. They’re not going to get any stronger, they’re only going to get weaker.” The contributions were followed by a round of probing questions from the floor.
To paraphrase W.B. Yeats, it’s when the centre cannot hold that things fall apart. That was the overriding message of the night. It would be naïve to place a timescale on it. But the direction of travel is increasingly clear. There can be little doubt: the ‘Union’ is falling apart.
- Joe Dwyer is a political organiser for the Sinn Féin London Office. You can follow him on Twitter/X here.
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